How a tortured caterpillar becomes a Butterfly…

Becoming Dr. Grey: Chapter 54—Poking an Angry Bear

I do not own Fifty Shades Trilogy, or the characters. They belong to E. L. James. I am only exercising my right to exploit, abuse, and mangle the characters to MY discretion in MY story in MY interpretation as a fan. If something that I say displeases you, please, just leave. If you don’t like this story or me, please don’t spoil this experience for everyone. Just go away. For the rest of you, the saga continues…

Chapter 54—Poking an Angry Bear

ANASTASIA

You could hear a rat piss on cotton right now. The whole world has gone silent and I see nothing but this Amazon bitch who just slapped the blood into my mouth. At least I think she slapped me. She could have hit me with a sledge hammer for all I know, it happened so fast. It fucking feels like it could have been a sledge hammer. That’s gonna leave a mark.

“Shit just got reeeeal,” Marilyn sings.

“I may be short, but this piece of steel makes me ten feet tall,” I say.

“That’s so…” she begins.

“I didn’t say you could speak!” I growl, and when I say growl, I mean literally growl. A demon’s voice comes out of my mouth. Her eyes sharpen. “I told you to leave and you didn’t, so you’re mine now, ‘cause you just bullied the wrong bitch.”

“Shoot her,” I hear Jack Jr., whisper.

“You hear that?” I tell her. “He’s the only reason your brains aren’t splattered all over that wall behind you and he wants me to shoot you. Sit down.”

“And if I don’t?” she taunts. As the “t” leaves her lips, I hit her in the head with the butt of the gun. She grunts loudly.

“Now we’re even! The next time it’ll be a bullet. Now sit down!” There goes the possessed voice again. “On the floor, on your hands, and don’t move!”

She can’t believe I’ve hit her. She first put her hand over her bruising temple then raises angry eyes to me.

“Don’t make me say it again,” I hiss menacingly.

“You might miss,” she hisses back.

“I don’t miss,” I retort. “Marine’s daughter, shooting since 12. Wanna try me?” I press the steel to her forehead again. She narrows her eyes and slowly glides to the floor. She’s graceful for an eight-foot, 400-pound bear. “Cross your legs, hands under your ass.” She crosses her legs and puts her hands under her thighs. Oh, no, bitch. I know that trick.

“I said under your ass. It’s as big as a fucking semi; I’m sure you can find it.” Her eyes narrow further and she moves her hands under her ass.

“Restrain him,” I tell the guards. “I know somebody has cuffs or something.”

“You’re too late. She’s already subdued,” I say impassively. Get the fuck away from me. She never should have had the opportunity to hit me.

“Ana…” I hear Grace’s voice now.

“Grace, get the police back here and get Jack and his son to the dorms so that they can get a good night’s sleep… for a change,” I instruct her. Jack rises from the sofa and walks with his son towards Grace.

“See ya ‘round, Jack,” she says, spitting his name in a condescending manner.

“No, you won’t,” he says. She turns her gaze to him.

“You brave all of a sudden, Jack?” she jeers. Jack actually laughs.

“Look at you!” he chuckles. “She’s all of 5’4” and she’s got you sitting on the ground like a dog!” I’m actually 5’2”.

“She’s got a gun,” she says with disdain.

“And after this, so will I,” he says definitively. “You’re nothing but a walking, talking slab of meat and you’ve been bullying me and my son for years. Take your goddamn gorilla and get the fuck out of my life. I’m getting a restraining order against you tomorrow and if you come within 100 feet of me or my son, I’m going to fill you full o’ lead.”

I’m still looking at her and I don’t see Jack talking to her.

“Good night, Glenda,” I hear Jack Jr., say in a mocking tone. Glenda? Like the good witch, Glenda? Well, if that don’t beat all.

“Somebody get me a goddamn chair; I’m pregnant.”

*-*

It’s about 8pm when I get home. Marilyn wants to come in with me because she pretty much knows what’s in store for me and she doesn’t want me to face it alone. I send her home and tell her to meet me here tomorrow as I have a feeling we will be redoing my schedule.

“Grace, you’re going to have to do without me,” I say after the police cart Glenda Hyde and her driver away. She frowns.

“You mean for a while?” she asks. I shake my head.

“I mean, do without me,” I say. “Christian’s going to blow a gasket when he sees me. I’m certain he’s going to demand that I don’t deal with this anymore. I know him and I can’t blame him. I don’t necessarily agree with him, but I don’t blame him. If one thing—any one thing—had gone differently tonight, my babies could have been hurt; I could have been in jail… That woman had no fear. My daddy taught me to never pull my gun unless I intend to pull the trigger. Tonight, I actually thought that at some point, I was going to have to. She hit me so fast, I didn’t even see it coming! I don’t even know how she hit me. Was it open-handed or a fist? Was it a punch or a slap? Was it backhanded or front-handed? I have no idea. If this goes to court, all I’m going to be able to say is that she hit me. And she hit me hard enough to turn me from east to west!”

“That’s no reason to quit, Ana,” she says almost pleading.

“I know that and I’m not quitting, but my face hurts so badly that I don’t even want to see it. When he sees it, he’s going to make me sit down, and I’m not going to fight him.” She sighs.

“I need you, Ana,” she says. “We’re about to get our accreditation and licenses. The fact that we had a licensed mental health care professional in an executive position… You can’t leave me.”

“John is going to have to come in more often and pick up some of the slack. He was going to have to do it anyway. I’ll do what I can from home. I won’t leave you high and dry—I promise, but after this, I’m getting grounded. We both already know it.”

“Are you ready to go, Mrs. Grey?” One of the unknown guards asks. I nod.

“Has anyone called Mr. Grey?” I ask. They all look at each other. “I’ll take that as a ‘no.’ Has anyone reported to Taylor?” The same blank looks. I sigh. “Well, that works out well for me. I’ll at least be able to get into the house and tell him what happened. Not so well for you guys though, because somebody’s getting fired.”

“Excuse me, Ma’am?” one of the guards say to me. Tread carefully, Ana.

“You guys did everything you could,” I tell them. “There were minimal casualties except for the face…” I gesture to my sore, swollen cheek. “Nobody left in a body bag. I say that’s a good night. But the boss’s wife is coming home with a shiner or close to it, and nobody told him. Do you see how this could be a problem?” They look at each other and then back at me.

“I’ll explain what happened,” I continue. “I’ll do my best. Everything moved so fast, but you guys know him… somebody’s going to pay. When he pulls you guys in, make sure your stories correlate. I’m already in trouble, so don’t try to spare me, but don’t make me the scapegoat either, because that’s going to piss him off more.” I sigh and they all look like they know they’re headed to the gallows. “Thank you all, really. I’ll make sure he knows you were on your game as much as you could be.” I turn to leave. Please don’t let there be any Robert Harrises in this group.

“Mrs. Grey?” I turn around and several of them are suddenly standing in a group. “It’s been a blast.” My heart hurts suddenly and my eyes burn. No Robert Harrises.

“I won’t let him fire you,” I say, “any of you. I’ll beg if I have to…”

So now, I’m walking in to face the firing squad. The shit that happens to me just doesn’t happen in real life. Nobody in the world goes through the shit that I go through. If I’m honest, I want to be quarantined for a while. Today was too much for my psyche. All I could think the entire time I was waving my gun at that bitch was that something was going to happen to my babies.

Windsor looks at me like an alien when I get in but says nothing, ultimate professional that he is. Yeah, I know it looks bad. I take a deep breath and go to the kitchen. Jason is there with his wife and she’s helping the staff get dinner ready. His eyes swell to the size of saucers.

“Ana, what happened?” Gail asks next while Ms. Solomon silently retrieves a chemical ice pack from the pantry and pops the center to activate it. I’m trying to tell them what’s going on but the words aren’t coming out of my mouth.

“Goddammit!” Jason pulls out his blackberry. “Where the fuck is Ben?” Oh shit, I forgot.

“He’s at the hospital with Thelma and Jimmy,” I tell him. “This wasn’t his fault.”

“Oh, I got an answer!” he shoots. “So can you tell me how this happened?” I try to say something again, but nothing comes out. I don’t know where to start. “Great—that means ‘long story.’ That means I should fucking know and I don’t! Fuck! Fuck!” He starts dialing his phone,

“Stop yelling at her, Jason!” Gail scolds.

“Oh, I’m just the warm-up!” Jason informs her. “The main event is down in his office, battling with his own monsters from today!” He turns back to his phone. “’Hi Jason.’ Don’t fucking ‘Hi Jason’ me! What the hell happened to her face?” He is mad. That means Christian is going to be furious and I’m not going to be able to save anybody’s job. I’ll be too busy trying to save my own ass.

“I gathered as much. Gimme the short version!” Jason is silent for about 30 seconds, then slowly turns incredulous eyes to me. A few seconds later, he covers his face with his hand before it pushes back to his hairline.

“Debrief tomorrow, 0800 at GEH Security Central. All of you need to be there. Prepare to grovel for your fucking jobs.” He ends the call. By now, I’ve broken eye-contact with him and put the ice pack on my face. I hear him sigh.

“Come on,” he says. “I’m not talking to him by myself.”

“Why do I feel like I’m talking to my father?”

“I don’t know how else to handle this right now,” he says, “but we need to go downstairs because the longer we wait, the worse it’ll be.” I sigh and follow Jason to the firing squad.

Christian’s face turns stark white and his eyes are slate gray and accusing… angry? I don’t know, but I feel like I’m twelve.

“What in God’s name happened to your face?” he asks. He turns to Jason.

“Disgruntled spouse,” he says. Christian glares at him, then back at me.

“Somebody hit you?” he asks, appalled. I nod. I think she hit me. I didn’t see it coming.

“No, a man with a pussy did this!” I hiss. “She was seven fucking feet tall! I feel like she hit me with a sack of rocks!”

“How many times did she hit you?” Christian asks.

“Once! That was enough. She spun me around on my feet.”

“What the fuck was security doing?” he asks.

“Subduing her seven-foot boyfriend,” I declare. Christian scoffs.

“This is a goddamn horror movie!” he says, flailing his hands in the air. “This shit doesn’t happen in real life!” My sentiments exactly. “Wait a minute. I thought you said this was a disgruntled spouse…”

“It was,” I say.

“So how could she be there with her boyfriend?”

“Hell if I know!” I retort. “Glenda Hyde. She comes from money somewhere and she’s a fucking bully. Beats her husband and stepson. Stepson—13—shows up this morning, beaten all to hell and dirty from living on the street since I don’t remember how long. The father shows up after a hit on Missing Persons with a burn straight across his body like a sash. I swear to God; it looks like my brand—oozing and festering.” I shiver at the thought of it. “We call the police. We make a report. As soon as they leave, she shows up with her boyfriend. The semantics of their relationship are irrelevant here. All you need to know is when we told her to leave, she hit me. It was lightning fast—nobody saw it coming or had time to react. She didn’t escalate or anything. She just laughed and hit me. By the time it was all over, security had restrained her boyfriend and she was about to eat my Beretta!”

“What?” Christian barks. “Did you shoot her?”

“No,” I reply.

“Too bad,” Jason says. I roll my eyes at him.

“So why didn’t you tell me about this?” Christian asks Jason.

“Because I just found out,” he replies.

“How is that possible? I thought you guys had a protocol when something happens to her.”

“We do, but Ben is still at the hospital with Ms. Radcliff.”

“Who was second on the communication tree?” Christian asks.

“I don’t know. I’d have to ask Ben.”

“Ben probably didn’t tell anybody,” I tell them. “I made him chase Thelma so that she wouldn’t get on the bus with the baby. I emailed this to you,” I say to Christian.

“So this is Ben’s fault…” Jason says.

“No, this is nobody’s fault!” I snap. “It’s my fault, okay? I should have left the Amazon woman alone! I should have let the police handle it.” I drop the ice pack on the desk in my frustration and realize a moment too late that it was the wrong thing to do because Christian now gets a good look at my face. He just stares at me for a minute.

What? Are there little people running out of my face?

I put the ice pack back on my cheek. It turns out the hit got nowhere near my eye, but she blew my cheek the fuck out.

“You said she came from money. Where do they live?” Just like that, Christian has slipped into business mode. Not sure I like how easily it came just then.

“Um… Redmond.”

“Okay, not that much money, but money. What was her name again?”

“Glenda Hyde.” He shakes his head.

“Not ringing any bells.” I pull out my phone.

“Marilyn got a picture of her and her henchman. We knew you’d want to put them on the ‘list.’” I open the gallery and show him the picture. He examines it for a moment.

“Somebody married her?” he exclaims. Well, that’s a bit unkind. “That’s Glenda Shetland. We used to call her Monster Bitch. You got into it with Monster Bitch?”

“More like Glenda Clydesdale. You know her?”

“Everybody knows her. She was constantly victimizing kids smaller than her. Now she’s taken it into adulthood, huh?”

“In the most brutal way,” I say. Christian hands me back my phone.

“I need to talk to my wife alone,” he tells Jason. Here it comes.

“Debrief at 0800 tomorrow,” Jason says.

“Yeah, okay.” Jason leaves and closes the door behind him. Christian walks back to the front of his desk and sits down in front of me. He touches all five fingertips to the other hands and ponders for a minute or two… too long. I don’t speak while he thinks. I need to let him come to whatever conclusion he’s going to come to without my input. An eternity later, he looks up at me.

“I’ve made an executive decision,” he says.

“I figured you would,” I reply. He looks at me and there’s a glint of displeasure in his eyes.

“You are officially on maternity leave,” he says. I raise my eyes to him.

“Maternity leave?”

“Yes. You have disgruntled spouses, abusive fathers coming in there that you have to deal with. You’re the first point of contact and you have to deal with this shit head on. You’re putting yourself at imminent physical risk as well as our babies. I try not to be unreasonable because I know that you can take care of yourself, but you are a month from your due date which means that those babies can come any day now and you have to watch your blood pressure. I don’t see how shoving a gun down Monster Bitch’s throat facilitates that, Anastasia.”

He’s firm on what he’s saying and his biggest bargaining chip are the babies, which I knew it would because it has to be.

“I’m officially taking you off of your duties as assistant director of Helping Hands until after the babies are born and you are released by your doctor to return to work. If you fight me on this, Ana, I’m going to call Dr. Culley. We just got back from a goddamn babymoon. All that rest and relaxation undone in one afternoon.” I sigh.

“I won’t fight you on it, Christian,” I say softly. His brow furrows.

“You won’t?” he asks. “You agree?”

“I didn’t say I agree. I said I won’t fight you on it.” He sighs infinitesimally.

“Good, because I was dealing with one of those disgruntled spouses today, which is how I found out about Radcliff’s house. But I have to tell you about it later, because I have to process all this stuff.” He falls back into his chair and says nothing else. I’m assuming I’m dismissed. I stand up, take my ice pack, and walk silently out of Christian’s office.

It didn’t go as badly as I thought it would. I thought he would tell me that I can’t work at Helping Hands at all. He just put me on mandatory maternity leave.

Mandatory maternity leave.

It’s kind of what I wanted, so why do I want to cry?

I take the elevator upstairs to the second floor and go to our bedroom. I don’t turn on any lights. I just lay in the bed with my ice pack. I’m sick of this thing now. Nobody’s going to see me anyway. I take it off my face and put it on the nightstand. I put my arms around my babies and imagine that I can feel the henna on my stomach. Once I’m comfortable, I can feel the tears burning in my eyes and I just let them fall. These are cleansing tears. I’m crying because Christian forced me into maternity leave, because I wanted him to force me into maternity leave and because I didn’t want him to force me into maternity leave. I’m crying because of what happened to Jack and his son, and because I was scared shitless when I was pointing that gun at that Amazon cow. I just cry and cry and cry, rubbing my henna until I fall asleep.

*-*

My head hurts.

My scar is throbbing; my face is throbbing; my head is killing me.

I went to bed without dinner last night. I slept straight through. I have no idea what time it is, but the sun shining through windows that normally don’t allow light in lets me know that it’s definitely after 8:00 and I definitely slept more that twelve hours. I feel like I’ve got a hangover.

Yeah, that would probably be because an Amazon bitch tried to kill us yesterday and we went to sleep without eating anything.Do you have anything constructive to say? Anything?Go take a shower and get some food. There may be some pain killers in your future, too.

Yeah, that’s productive, I guess.

My head weighs a ton. My head weighs a ton. My head weighs a ton. Did I mention that my head weighs a ton? I’m barely able to roll over and see a small tray on the nightstand.

Fruit salad, cottage cheese, orange juice, two Tylenol, what appears to be Gail’s famous tea bags… and a single red rose.

Did he come to bed last night?

I eat the fruit and cheese offering and take the Tylenol with the orange juice. Hopefully, they’ll kick in by the time I get out of the shower…

Somewhere around ten o’clock or so, I make it down to my office. Marilyn has to be here by now. I drag my ass into my office and it’s empty. No Marilyn. Oh, well. I don’t know what was on the agenda for today anyway. I sit down at my desk and lay my head down, the tea flat on the side of my face. I’m lying there for a few minutes when I hear a familiar voice.

“Wow, you look like you’ve had a rough night.”

She’s here after all. Did she just get here?

“Thanks,” I say with no malice. “How long have you been here?”

“A while,” she says, setting her laptop on my desk and pulling a chair up across from me. She just sits there expecting.

“What?” I ask a bit sluggishly. I think I got too much sleep.

“I know that the last few days have been pretty harrowing for you, and by no means am I trying to make it any worse, but I need to talk to you about something.”

“What’s up?” I lift my head.

“Have you found occasion to call Andrea and make a request of her?” My brow furrows.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I say.

“You know, like giving Christian a message or locate Christian for you or maybe even to remind him of the appointment or pencil something in on his calendar… Any little thing that you requested of her or maybe of Luma.” I pause.

“I’ve rarely had occasion to request anything from Andrea or Luma,” I tell her. “Maybe to locate Christian or give him a message, yeah, I’ve probably done that.”

“But you’ve never outright ordered them to do something or not to do something…” I frown.

“Of course not!” I declare. “Why would I do something like that?”

“Then would it be too much to ask for you to tell your husband to extend the same courtesy to me?” she beseeches. “I realize that he’s got a lot on his plate ruling the world and everything, but I’m never rude or belligerent to him, and I would appreciate if he would extend that same respect to me that I extend to him!”

Oh, hell.

“What did he say?” I lament. I wait for her response, but none comes. Apparently what I said or how I said it causes her to rethink her tactic. After a long silence, I look up at her and see sympathy in her eyes. It almost makes me cry.

“What did he say?” I repeat, trying to overcome the pitiful look she has in her eyes towards me right now.

“He was just really rude, Ana,” she says. “I knew there would be some kind of laying down of the law after what happened yesterday, but he had no right to speak to me the way that he did when I walked into the house this morning. He barked orders at me like I was the janitor at GEH, telling me not to bother you and to leave you alone until you woke up; telling me not to give you any kind of tasks that required you to go to Helping Hands; demanding that I change your schedule and remove any appointments that involve going to the Center. It was like I work for him, not you. If that’s the case, then I think I should tender my resignation, because I can’t work for him.”

I shake my head. I can barely fight my own battles with Christian. I can’t fight anybody else’s.

“You don’t work for Christian. You work for me. And when he gets like that with you, you have my full permission to give it right back to him. I don’t condone him treating everybody like they’re at his beck and call, like they’re peons in his little world, and I won’t stand by and let him treat you that way either. But to be honest with you, I don’t have the strength to fight him. If he treats you like less than a human being, give it right back!” Her eyes widen.

“Really?” she says surprised. “You won’t be mad?”

“Honestly, I’d welcome it,” I tell her. “I have no problem whatsoever with Christian exercising his authority where his authority should reach. I do have a problem with him thinking his authority should reach everywhere! That’s just not the case, and I just can’t clean up the mess every time he does something like this. So yes, if he disrespects you, give it right back. Let him know you’re not going to accept it. I don’t have a problem with it.” She sighs.

“Thank you, Ana,” she says. “The only reason he treats me that way is because I won’t say anything back. And the only reason I won’t say anything back is because of you. You know I won’t go overboard, but I just want the right to defend myself. You’re sure it won’t cause you any problems?”

“If he says anything to me about it, I’m going to tell him to take it up with you and he can’t fire you because you don’t work for him, just like I can’t fire Andrea.”

“He was all haughty, saying that you wouldn’t be going into the Center for a while and that you would confirm that when you woke up.” She opens her laptop.

“Well, he’s right about that,” I tell her. “I’ve been placed on early maternity leave until after the babies are born.” She frowns. “What?”

“I guess I’m a little confused,” she says.

“About what?”

“His orders were specific… no Helping Hands—well, at least no going to Helping Hands…”

“Yes?”

“So, this is the referendum until after the babies are born,” she continues.

“Until after Dr. Culley releases me to return to work, yes,” I confirm. She shakes her head, still frowning. “What is it?”

“It’s going to cause a problem if I say it, Ana,” she warns.

“It’s going to cause a problem if you don’t,” I retort. She folds her hands.

“What’s going to be different after Dr. Culley releases you than right now? What’s so different with the situation right now that won’t be so in two months?”

“I won’t be pregnant!” I state obviously.

“Exactly!” she declares. “Did he say why he didn’t want you going to the Center? Was it because Goon Girl hit you? Was it because of the danger? Was it because of the stress?”

“I would think it was because of the stress,” I say.

“But he didn’t say specifically,” she retorts. She’s right, he didn’t say. “Remember that you told me to tell you this. I wanted to keep it to myself.”

“Go ahead,” I say, anxious to see where she’s going.

“We all know that your husband is the ultimate control freak. I expected some kind of demand to be handed down in terms of this situation, but not this. I expected maybe for him to tell you cut back, but I didn’t expect for him to tell you to stop altogether, and I certainly didn’t expect you to agree to it. People depend on you, Grace most of all! The Center is about to get its accreditation. You implemented most of the programs and put the plans in place to make that happen. You did all the work; you know all the moving parts and now, you’re just going to drop it and run—right when it’s about to come to fruition.” Her voice is drenched with stunned awe and disappointment.

“I think my biggest confusion lies in the fact that whatever dangers are facing you now will still be facing you after you have the babies. So what’s the thrust here?” I narrow my eyes.

“What are you getting at?” I demand.

“Do you really need me to say it?” she asks.

“Yes, I need you to say it!” She shakes her head.

“No,” she says. “No, you talk to your husband. You find why he says you can’t finish what you started at Helping Hands. You already know what I’m thinking and I’m not going to verbalize it because you mean too much to me and I’m not going to risk this relationship. If he has your best interests at heart, then so be it, because in the end, that’s really all I care about. But that’s going to be a discussion that the two of you have, not the two of us! If you’re going to accept his demands, no questions asked, then it’s none of my business—which is what I implied in the first place—and all I need you to do is tell me what my next instructions are. A lot of your life revolved around Helping Hands, but not all of it, so we’ve got other things we can talk about.” I sigh. That was a Marilyn Caldwell dismissal. When and if she’s ever ready to tell me exactly what she was getting at, she will. In the meantime, it’s a closed subject.

“Okay, so what’s next?” I say, almost dreading the question.

“Well, as far as I know, His Majesty was doing the background checks on the potential Broadmoor sponsors. I don’t know how that has turned out yet, so I’m sure he’ll talk to you about it. With your permission, they’ve narrowed the choices down to two couples. I guess we’ll have to wait to see what comes up.” She hands me her iPad and I review the information on the two couples. Nothing stands out immediately about either of them. The names don’t ring any bells. I shrug.

“I guess I’ll just have to wait until Christian tells me if there’s anything to be concerned about.”

“Speaking of which, what’s the verdict with the rest of the goods for the Radcliffs?” she asks. I frown.

“The verdict?” I ask. “In what sense?”

“I’ve done the inventory,” she says. “What do we plan to do with the rest of the stuff?”

“Why did you do an inventory?”

“Christian…” She trails off. “You don’t know what I’m talking about.” I shake my head. “Oh, hell. This day just keeps getting better and better. Yesterday, Christian asked me to do an inventory of the things that you two had planned to give the Radcliffs—whatever you hadn’t given to Thelma yet. He said he was going to talk to you about it and apparently, he hasn’t talked to you, yet.” I twist my lips. He did mention it, but we never finished talking about it.

“Probably sidetracked by the events at the Center,” I say non-committal. “I’ll ask him about it if he doesn’t bring it up… If I remember.”

“And what should I tell the three news outlets who have contacted me this morning about a statement concerning your holding an unarmed woman at gunpoint last night?” she asks matter-of-factly. I am remarkably unmoved by her revelation.

“Turn that over to His Highness and Vee at GEH and let them handle it,” I say.

CHRISTIAN

Have you ever had one of those days where no matter what you do, your thoughts are determined to run completely amuck and no matter how hard you try, you can’t string two of them together to save your life? That’s what’s happening to me today. I’ve got a business to run, but I’d do better to put a sign on my door that says “gone fishing.”

Where do I start?

Talking to Marilyn was a stellar moment this morning. I can just hear her now whining to Ana about professional courtesy and talking to her like a subordinate. I guess she’s forgotten who bought her that shiny new car she’s driving. I know I haven’t heard the last of that conversation.

Fast forward to the debriefing with the stooges this morning on my so-called security staff. I won’t begin to describe my horror as I listened to the details surrounding the assault on my very pregnant wife. It turns out Butterfly slugged her back with the butt of her gun and held her there until the police arrived. She could have been arrested for assault herself, but the previous police report, her badly swollen face, and the commanding size of Gorilla Girl over her all constituted self-defense along with the many eyewitnesses to the incident.

All of these idiots have been temporarily suspended with pay for being such incompetent idiots and allowing this beast to get to my wife in the first place, except for Bronson. It turns out that he really can’t cut it and I had to let him go. Lawrence has been placed on disciplinary probation for not following protocol and passing the communications torch when he took Thelma and Jimmy to the hospital. I don’t care if it was an emergency and he was in a hurry. The moment there was a crisis, Helping Hands should have been swarming with GEH security detail, and I certainly should have known that my wife was assaulted before she showed up at home with a purple face.

I simultaneously get hit with the information that news outlets are circulating that Butterfly pulled her Beretta on Shetland last night and that the Fairlanes are in the lobby kicking up enough dust to cause a sandstorm. I decide to let the Father and Son Fairlane stew for a moment while I handle the media mess that is Shetland.

“I assume you already have contact information for one Mrs. Glenda Shetland-Hyde?” I say to my head of PR.

“Have we met?” she says, handing me a document across my desk and crossing her legs. I open my phone and dial her number. “Christian! You’re calling her?” I just glare at her.

“Glenda Shetland, please.” I say when there’s an answer on the other line.

“May I say who’s calling?”

“Vince Fields from Seattle Sez. I was wondering if she wants to make a statement about the domestic abuse charges against her.”

“One moment…” and there’s silence.

“Christian, this is not a good idea!” McIntyre hisses. I ignore her and wait for this Neanderthal cunt to get on the phone.

“This is Glenda Shetland,” she says on the other line.

“Is this really how you want to play this, Monster Bitch?” More silence.

“Who the fuck is this?” she barks.

“Christian Grey,” I respond.

“Christian Grey… what the hell do… Grey… Grey!”

“Yeah, Grey! That sawed-off doll that you viciously slapped last night and now claims that she pulled her gun on you for no reason was my very pregnant wife!” I hiss.

“Oh, really?” she says. “Well, she did pull her gun on me and I was unarmed.”

“You’re also twice her size and had just beaten your husband and stepson to the point where you were wanted for several counts of domestic assault and one count of assault with intent to maim, you Cro-Magnon cavebitch!” She gasps.

“You are so crass!” she seethes.

“Oh, you can’t be serious!” I shoot. “You’ve been a bully ever since we were kids and you still haven’t grown out of it. You’ve just gotten older and bigger, and now, you’ve picked the wrong one to fuck with.”

“Oh, I’m not worried,” she retorts. “My father will deal with you.”

“Your father,” I nearly laugh in her ear. “Tell your father to call me directly as soon as possible and let me know personally how he plans to deal with me. Make sure you leave nothing out. I’ll be waiting for his call.” I end the call.

“Her father,” McIntyre repeats, “her father as in Mark Shetland? As in Shetland Rubber Mark Shetland?”

“One and the same,” I respond.

“Oh, this should be good,” she chuckles.

“Still think it wasn’t a good idea?” I ask. She shakes her head.

“You enjoy this shit entirely too much,” she says. “What about Fairlane? That’s going to be a PR nightmare.”

“Do what you can. You know what happened at the Meet-and-Greet. Since the word is obviously out, start spreading our own poison-pill damage control.”

“You got it,” she says, standing and walking to the door. I pick up the phone and dial the extension to Legal.

“Allen Forsythe.”

“The Fairlanes are here,” I tell him.

“I’ll be right there.”

*-*

“What the fuck is this, Grey!?” Fairlane Jr., has burst into my office with Jason hot on his heels and his father following meekly not far behind. He is fuming, breathing like a bull. Al sits silently to my immediate right and my eyes are pinned to the computer like I’m engrossed in the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen.

“To what are you referring, George?” I say calmly, without lifting my eyes from the computer screen.

“You know what I’m talking about you piece of shit!” he shoots. “Fairlane Electronics sold to Rosedale, Inc; Fairlane Shipping sold to Aarland Freight; Fairlane Manufacturing sold to Lansing LTD; There’s nothing left but Fairlane Communications, and only a fraction of that! Our people are being laid off left and right! You promised only one-third staff reduction by the end of the first quarter—Fairlane has lost more than 75% of its original staff in less than two weeks! You broke our deal, Grey! We’re going to sue those designer pants right off your ass!” I look up at him unmoved, then at his father, who has stayed decidedly quiet all this time.

“Nothing to say, Fairlane?” I ask Fairlane, Sr., noting that he won’t make eye-contact. This only throws fuel on Junior’s fire.

“Don’t you fucking ignore me, you scheming son of a bitch!” he spits.

“Scheming,” I say, turning my gaze back to Junior and folding my hands. “Now there’s a good word. Tell me, George, how was my behavior scheming? I legitimately bought a company and I legitimately sold it, which I never said I wouldn’t do.”

“Stop calling me George, you slimy bastard! This wasn’t part of the deal and you know it!”

“Deal,” I say as if testing the word out. I type the word into Google and read back the definition. “’An agreement entered into by two or more parties for their mutual benefit.’ Mutual benefit… you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Georgie?”

“I didn’t come here for a goddamn English lesson, you fucking snake! You broke your word! Your breached your contract! I’m going to sue you until Grey Enterprises is nothing but a goddamn memory!”

“You can’t sue me, because I was never dealing with you in the sale of the company in the first place. You advised your father, but when it came to signing, you only signed that you would come along for the ride as the president.”

“I’m told I’m not the president anymore!” he barks. “So that contract has been breached all by itself.” I shake my head and turn to Fairlane.

“You had this man as the president of your company and he doesn’t know anything about business?” and clearly, neither do you. He stands silent. I turn to George.

“It’s Mr. Fairlane, you fucking asshole! And I’m doing all the goddamn talking!” He slams his hand hard down on my desk. Jason and Williams are hot on him with that show of aggression. Jason not-so-gingerly pushes George back from my desk. George glares at him with death in his eyes.

“You might not want to provoke that bear too much, Fairlane,” I warn, putting mocking emphasis on the name. “He took a bullet for me last year… in this very room. Any signs of aggression towards me or him are seen as overt threats and will be met with as much force as necessary.” Fairlane breaks his glare with Jason and turns narrowed eyes to me.

“Someone tried to kill me in this office last March,” I say, standing up. “Walked right in with a group of workmen and lay in wait until I was alone. Aimed a stolen gun at me and fired. That man dove in front of me, knocking me out of harm’s way and taking the bullet himself. My wife—that beautiful woman that was ridiculed and ostracized all night by your wives, dates, and female employees at the Meet-and-Greet—witnessed the whole damn thing.”

His eyes widen and Fairlane Sr., finally makes eye contact with me. I don’t know if their surprise is because Butterfly witnessed the whole ordeal or because I’ve let the cat out of the bag that I know what their women were doing. My expression remains impassive.

“That speech she gave about scars? You can inform your coven that although they tried to leave her with another one, they were unsuccessful. As you all can imagine, I took very good care of her, but I can guarantee that a lot of them are nursing wounds that aren’t going to heal anytime soon.”

“You did all this because someone at a party hurt the little woman’s feelings?” Now he’s just egging me, but it’s too late for that.

“No,” I say coolly. “You did this to yourselves. I’m doing what I’m doing because you and your father are ignorant assholes. I’m doing what I’m doing because what you two attempted was really stupid; more than that, it was disrespectful. It was bad business in every way, shape, and form. You sold me an apple—plucked from the tree with maybe a bruise here and there, but still functional. Then the moment you signed the papers, you shot that bitch full of infectious bacteria and then handed it to me like it was some sort of prize. When I took it, maggots crawled out all over me and my wife, and you expected me to take that shit lying down. But you didn’t know that you were dealing with a bigger cutthroat than you. I’ve got proof, Fairlane, including but not limited to that memo you sent out to your department heads the day you signed the deal.”

Both men pale and George isn’t standing so tall against Jason anymore. I tell security to stand by and they move to the side.

“Sit down,” I order. Fairlane sits, but George remains defiant.

“I don’t work for you,” he growls. “I’m not president of the company anymore, remember?” I fold my arms and smile.

“You’re right, you’re not, but you do still work for me. You’re an employee of GEH as an executive of Fairlane LTD—a company that doesn’t exist anymore. I sold the company, but you didn’t go along with the package. You should have read your contract, Georgie. You signed separately with GEH, because I knew you were going to be a problem. If you decide to break your contract, I could sue you for a penny and still break you on punitive damages—especially after I prove what you and your father did to the company you sold me after you sold it to me. You tainted the assets after I bought it.

“So go ahead and try to go nose to nose with me on this and see if any judge in the country would see it your way, but know that I will sue you for every dime GEH gave you—your expense accounts, your salary, and that hefty signing bonus. That’s a lot of money to have accumulated in such a short period of time, and don’t think I haven’t kept an eye on your spending. And once again, if you look closely at your contract, Georgie, once your position becomes obsolete—which it has—I can put you in any available position for any pay I so choose. Oh, yes, you would still have to be at an executive-type level, but I can find many ways to make that unattractive and uncomfortable, the least of which is money. I and my wife are the only officers of this company, so I can’t even be voted out.

“Your ass is mine, kid, and you are beyond being on ‘tenterhooks’ right now. So if I were you, I would tread really lightly with me at this moment and sit. The fuck. Down.”

Georgie glares at me and slowly—very slowly—sits down in the seat next to his father. I walk around and stand in front of my desk.

“Since day one, I’ve been trying to warn you that you’re in the big leagues, now—that you have no idea who you’re dealing with. You still had to show me that your bat was bigger. You rebutted me and fought me every chance you got. You two employed some of the most elementary tactics I’ve ever seen the entire time I’ve been in the business. Never mind that you were trying to pull several over on me. It was insulting that you would employ such amateur techniques with any hope of getting away with them. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so goddamn pathetic. Now, you come marching into my office like you still have a bone to pick with me when you never realized in the first place that you may have carried a big stick, but you were too small to swing it.”

Both gentlemen sit quietly in front of me, Fairlane with his legs and hands crossed, looking anywhere but at me, and Georgie breathing fire and no doubt plotting my demise.

“You want to know the real reason why your father’s so quiet, Georgie? The real reason? Because he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He knows that I can sue you and your family for what you did to me and get every dime of my purchase price back either in judgements, damages, and legal fees, or in just keeping you in litigation for the rest of your life. I haven’t completely disregarded that option, but I’ve made so much money off the garage sale that was your life’s work that the sting isn’t so bad anymore. I nearly made my purchase price back on your electronics division alone.

“What’s so sad is that I had every intention of rebuilding your company. That’s what I do… I take sick companies and I make them well again. The only ones that I sell are the ones that are dying… Or the ones where the chief officers really piss me off. But you know what? If you really sit down and talk to your father and he really tells you the truth, he would tell you that he got exactly what he wanted, didn’t you, Mr. Fairlane?” He looks up at me with a panicked look in his eye. I’m about to reveal something to his son that he doesn’t want him to know.

“You see, his only concern was that he never wanted his company in the hands of GEH, but I was giving you the best deal. So when he convinced you and the rest of your lemmings to make the company as unattractive to me as possible the day that he sold it to me, he wasn’t banking on the fact that I’d chop it up and sell it off like pieces of the Berlin Wall. He wasn’t expecting that each division would lose 75% of their workforce in a matter of weeks, because your retention agreement was with me, not with those companies that bought the divisions from me.

“I had no demands, just a purchase price, and no company like redundancies or unnecessary staff. I went to the highest offering the best prices in the industry, many of them known for massive staff reductions upon acquisition—companies, in fact, that I saw you purposefully avoided—and unlike you, I made full disclosure of the staff that they were getting when they purchased the divisions.

“Most of all, Georgie, your father didn’t expect to find you out of work. He was hoping I would ship you off with the company. So, yes, he got exactly what he wanted. He’s sitting on a nice mountain of Grey money, and his once-failing, now-defunct company is not in the hands of Grey Enterprises. But now, he has to look at and live with all the casualties and opportunity costs of his decisions. I got that about right, Fairlane? Did I leave anything out?”

Fairlane is looking a little pale and breaking into a sweat now , but his son is too busy blaming me for their current state of affairs to see it.

“Don’t try to turn this around on my father, Grey,” he says with vicious coolness. “You dealt dirty business; just own up to it.”

“Dirty business,” I say, shaking my head. “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? I guess you can swing that big stick after all, because you’re batting a thousand, but it’s all bullshit. Exactly how much of the purchase price did you get, Georgie?”

George suddenly falls quiet. And in that moment, it hits me, like a freight train. Suddenly, I am overwhelmed with delight that I must contain until I confirm what I just discovered.

“You didn’t get any of it, did you?” I say incredulously. His stone expression tells me all I need to know. “Oh my God. This is classic. You have no idea, do you? You’re just a natural born asshole. You weren’t part of the plan at all!” The glee bubbles up in me and I can’t contain it. In all the years I’ve been in business, I’ve never seen anything like this before. “Gentlemen,” I gesture to my security. “You might want to flank this man, because he’s about to get pissed.”

“Grey…” And that’s the only voluntary word Fairlane Sr., has spoken since he walked into my office.

“Oh, no, you played your cards, and now it’s my turn.” I turn back to George. “Your father isn’t protesting enough because once he saw that his company was failing, he set it up for martyrdom and you were the virgin sacrifice.”

“What!?” George barks. “What kind of fucking bullshit are you spitting now?”

“Earlier, when I mentioned your coven and that memo… On the day of the sale, your father sent a detailed memo to every department head, manager, and executive in the company to be communicated to the employees—except you, it appears. They all had a mission—make Fairlane LTD look as undesirable as possible, up to and including destroying my wife at the Meet-and-Greet. You didn’t need the memo because you’re an asshole anyway, so he was just counting on you being yourself.

“They almost succeeded, but they didn’t expect for my wife to be as strong as she is or for me to put her happiness before the dollar and negate their attempts. Nonetheless, overall, his tactic worked—too well. He didn’t expect me to sell off the pieces. He expected me to see what a lemon I bought and unload it as soon as possible. Had I done that and kept the company intact, then he would have had some small hope of maintaining a piece of the original contract with the new buyers, including securing a place for you. What he didn’t know was that after that very well-positioned display by you and your cohorts, my rummage was underway before the ink was even dry registering Fairlane LTD as a GEH subsidiary.”

At that moment, I burst out in hearty laughter. I can’t even contain myself anymore.

“My God, this couldn’t have gone better had I planned it this way!” I exclaim jovially. “You assholes stepped knee-deep down into your own shit, and you come barging into my office further making a fool of yourself because you had no idea what he was doing,” I tell Georgie, gesturing to his father. “You wonder why I was giving you English lessons; it’s because I was sure that you were being facetious… sarcastic at best. No, you were clueless, which is way better,” I snicker. “So every time you mention dirty dealing and breach of contract and slimy business practices, you better look in the mirror… or better yet, look over at Daddy!”

I can hear his teeth grinding a few feet in front of me and being able to judge body language like I can, the moment his fists clench, I know what’s coming. I don’t have the chance to say anything, I only have time to react—right cross. I swerve just in time to miss his swing and come back with a solid left to his gut. He doubles over in pain and his father leaps from his seat to his son’s aid. I sort of feel a little remiss about suspending the guards over last night’s incident now, especially if Monster Bitch moved half as fast as this asshole did just now.

Jason and Williams are on top of him immediately, but it’s too late. He can’t even breathe.

“I thought I could fix it, George,” Fairlane says. “Even after the price cut, he had the best deal… the best!”

“Dad!” Junior says, finally finding his breath! “You sold everything! You sold Mom’s tears! All those years! You sold me!”

“I didn’t know!” Fairlane beseeches his son’s understanding. “I didn’t mean to!” he says, clinging to Junior’s arm. Junior snatches his arm away and glares at his father in disgust. After several moments, he proceeds to the door, his hand over his still-aching stomach.

“I’ll expect you at work tomorrow, Fairlane,” I say to his retreating form. He slowly turns around and makes eye-contact with me.

“I don’t care what you do to me, Grey, but I won’t work for you.” He turns around and leaves my office, closing the door behind him.

“Well, I’d say that’s game, set, match. How’d that work out for you, Mr. Fairlane?” I say. Fairlane Sr., glares at me, then turns and leaves through the same door his son just exited.

“Well, that was quite the show,” Al says, having not said anything throughout the entire meeting.

“Tell me about it,” I respond. “Get the three-day voluntary resignation letter ready for Georgie. Get with Payroll and Accounting. Tally up his expense accounts. I want every dime of GEH money he’s spent recuperated including the gas in that company car he’s driving.”

“Will do,” he says, rising from his seat and exiting after the Fairlanes. Jason and Williams look warily at me.

“Lawrence’s probation stands. He should have followed protocol. So does Bronson’s termination. He can’t cut it. Bring the others back and wipe their records clean,” I say.

*-*

The house is dead quiet when I get back. Windsor takes my coat when I get into the house and informs me that he hasn’t seen Mrs. Grey all day. I noticed Marilyn’s car is gone so I know that she’s not working. I check our bedroom first. Nothing. I take the elevator to the family room—nothing there either. Gail is in the kitchen with Ms. Solomon and other members of the staff. She informs me that Butterfly did stop in for more tea earlier, but has long since gone to parts unknown. I check her office, the aquarium, the spa, her parlor, the theater, even the gym and still nothing. It turns out that the person with information on her whereabouts is Keri, who informs me that she is in the backyard.

The backyard??

It’s dark and cold! What the fuck is she doing in the backyard?

I fetch a coat from the mudroom and trek out to the backyard to retrieve my wife. I find her in a warm coat, scarf, earmuff and gloves, wrapped in a heavy tartan blanket around her legs sitting in a chaise with a large fire roaring in a fire pit off in the grass that I didn’t even know we had near the boat house. I sit in a nearby chaise that I can only assume was previously occupied by Keri.

“You should have some tea on your cheek,” I say softly.

“I had it on all day,” she says, wrapping her blanket tighter around her legs. “Nobody’s gonna see me anyway.” She adds the last part as a murmur that I’m not sure I was supposed to hear.

“Have you heard about Glenda Ste… Hyde?”

“Yes,” she replies.

“I talked to her father.”

“And?”

“She’ll leave Jack and the boy alone. She’ll retract her statements about you and most likely take a plea.” She nods.

“I’ll tell Grace,” she says, turning her gaze back to the fire. She’s going to be a tough nut to crack.

“I… um… fired the guards from last night, but I ended up hiring them back. I can see how something could happen so fast that they had no time to react.”

“Oh?” She turns a questioning eye to me.

“The Fairlanes came to my office today. Junior almost got one in on me, but I was too fast for him,” I chuckle.

“Really?” She’s not amused. “So, you didn’t get hit.” It’s a statement not a question.

“Almost, but no. He did, though.”

“By you?” she asks. I nod.

“Yes. Once. Gut punch.”

“Hmm, so are you going to take time off now… because you had to defend yourself?”

“I’m not pregnant,” I say. She nods.

“Hmm… of course not.” She turns her gaze back to the fire.

“Butterfly, why are you being like this?” I sigh. She turns her gaze back to me.

“You hand down the law and I take it,” she says impassively. “Whether I want to or not, I take it. Whether I agree with it or not, I take it. What more do you want me to do?”

“I just want you to understand why I feel this way,” I reply. “These conditions are just not good for you…”

“For me, or for me and the babies?” she asks. What kind of question is that?

“Both!” I say, obviously.

“But conditions will be better once the babies are born?”

“Well, yes. It’ll be less stress on your body, less risk of complications, high blood pressure…” She turns her eyes back to the fire before I’m done with my statement. “What the hell am I missing?” She looks back at me.

“Tell me this,” she says, her voice still portraying this eerie calm. “How is it okay for me to carry my gun, stay locked and loaded with intent to shoot to kill, and be on the lookout for mob henchmen or this monster that terrorized you as a child, yet when I get struck by an abusive spouse at my job, the idea that I had to pull my gun to defend myself is unthinkable? Now, all bets are off and I’m grounded from the one thing that I put everything else aside to do. If you can help me reconcile those two things, then I’ll be fine with this. If not, then don’t ask me to understand. I’ll comply, but I won’t understand.”

I just stare at her. I don’t have an answer. All I know is that her being at Helping Hands puts her directly in the line of fire of angry spouses who are abusive to women and in this case, men also, who seek refuge in this place. Some of them will go through whomever they have to go through to get to those spouses, and that includes my wife. It’s a regular hazard of her job. Coming face to face with Anton Myrick is a possibility, not a definite hazard.

“Myrick is not an imminent danger…”

“Neither is anyone at the Center!” she protests.

“The danger is more imminent than Myrick!”

“So what about after the children are born?” she asks. “The Center will have child care and I’m going to have the twins there with me some days. What then?”

Yes, what then indeed.

“It’s just not good for you right now. Can’t you see that?”

“No, Christian, I can’t,” she says with no malice. “I completely understand that you’re upset about what happened. I don’t understand why you pulled the plug on me. I knew that you would, but I don’t understand why. I closed my practice for Helping Hands and now I have no Helping Hands. So I guess for the next month, I’ll just concentrate on waiting until my babies are born and then see what happens next.”

“Ana, you make it sound like you have nothing else.” She frowns at me like I’m completely missing the point then turns back to the fire.

“Christian, I really want to be alone right now,” she says, and now I feel like I just took a gut punch. I stand up and walk back to the house. Raking my hands through my hair, I go down to my office. I’m only trying to keep her and the babies safe. Why can’t she see that? I know that the Center is important to her and I didn’t tell her to stop completely. I just asked her to hold off until after the babies are born. Without taking off my coat, I pull out my blackberry and dial a number.

“Hello, Christian.”

“Hello, Dr. Baker. I hope it’s not too late.”

“No, it’s not. Is everything alright?”

“Do you have a moment? I really need to talk,” I say.

“Okay, what’s going on?” she asks.

“Doctor/patient privilege, right?” I ask before I say anything.

“Of course,” Dr. Baker says.

“My wife was at the Center yesterday. As I’m sure you’ve heard because it’s all over the damn news, she had to pull her firearm on an abusive spouse. It was a woman—but not just any woman. This woman is nearly seven feet tall and proportionately wide and was abusing her husband and stepson currently in hiding at the Center. My wife is 5’2”. This woman hit my wife so hard with one blow that the entire left side of my wife’s face is swollen and bruised from temple to chin. So yes, my wife subdued her with her Beretta and held her there until the police arrived. I, of course, didn’t learn about any of this until I saw my wife’s face.”

“Ooohheeewww,” she says.

“Yeah,” I reply. “My reaction was definite. No more Helping Hands until after the babies are born and the doctor clears her to return to work. She’s pregnant with twins; it’s already a high risk pregnancy; we’re trying to watch her blood pressure and keep an eye out for pre-eclampsia. Between her losing her memory and nearly dying, the cyber-attack on my company, her batty-ass friend who’s acting like a reprogrammed fembot, the interruption of our honeymoon, figuring out we were pregnant when she blew chunks all over the defense attorney at the trial of that bastard who kidnapped her which had resulted in yet another brutal beating, nearly seeing me shot to death by that psycho blonde pedophile, the complete and utter alienation of her mother, running to the hills of Montana before our wedding, having to relive this Green Valley shit all over again—it’s been one hell of a fucking year!! And that’s not even everything!” I finally take a breath and Dr. Baker is completely silent on the line.

“I’ve met a lot of damn ‘Ana’s’ since we’ve been together,” I continue. “I’ve met Tiger Ana, Mistress Ana, Marine’s Daughter Ana, Submissive Ana, Passive-Aggressive Ana, Sensual Ana, Caretaker Ana, Take-No-Prisoners Ana… but I think the Ana that I’m dealing with now is the one that I dislike the most.”

“And who is that?” she asks.

“Complacent Ana,” I tell her. “This is the same Ana I met after that last punishment—somewhat resigned to her fate, but neither here nor there when I try to get her to talk about it. That ‘yes, Master’ undertone in her conversation, but she pretty much allows me to draw my own conclusions by stating the obvious—by taking that ‘Yes, Sir, you’re right, Sir’ mentality and she knows I hate that shit!”

“I don’t understand,” she says. “If you lay down the law, one would expect for you to expect compliance…”

“But not because I’m barking an order at her,” I clarify. “I want her to understand why I feel this way, but when I try to talk to her about it—about how I feel about her health and her safety—it sounds to me like…” I don’t even want to say it.

“Like what?” Dr. Baker presses.

“Like she thinks I’m trying to draw some kind of distinction between her and the babies.” There. I’ve said it. It was clearly implied in her conversation and if I confront her with it, it’s another fight that I don’t want to have. I fall down in a nearby seat and thrust my hand in my hair, resting my elbow on my knee. Why can’t I act irrational and emotional without everybody thinking I’m selfish or I’ve lost my mind? I want to stomp and yell and say how unfair it is for me to be treated this way when all I’m doing is acting out of concern for my family, but somehow or another, I’ll be the bad guy if I do. Suddenly, I feel very self-conscious.

“I’m sorry I called, Dr. Baker. I wanted to say these things out loud, but really, there’s nothing you can do to help me with this.”

“What are you going to do?” she asks.

“I don’t know, but if you come up with some good ideas, feel free to text me. Goodnight, Doctor.” I end the call and toss my phone on the floor.

A/N: Just in case it’s not obvious, Shetlands and Clydesdales are both equine breeds (horses). Glenda’s maiden name is Shetland, which is a pony that officially only gets to be about 3.5 feet tall (about 107 cm). Ana’s statement about Glenda “Clydesdale” would be a reference to a breed of one of the largest horses in the world, getting to average 6 feet tall, but the largest of which stood 19.3 hands or nearly 6.5 feet tall—which is pretty damn huge for a horse.

Is it just me or hadn’t Ana already decided on the way home that she wasn’t going to work at the center anymore and she seemed okay with that. But then Marilyn opens her mouth and starts going off on how Christian’s controlling her and puts doubts in her head and now she’s all “I don’t understand”?

I agree with you…I”m just as confused about this. Ana told Grace Helping Hands would have to be without her, but then acts as if Christian did something against her “will”. As for Marilyn, I think she overstepped. She may not work “for” Christian, but she also seems to forget everything he has done for her and although she can certainly stand up for herself when being disrespected, she seems to take overstep her position without regard of the whole situation and what escalated it. Marilyn is also Ana’s friend and I think she also may use that mix with her position, even if it’s unintentional. Ana is wrong here; and once again Christian becomes the bad guy. I am completely with Christian here; and tired of Ana always feeling as it she’s been wronged here and he has to take the fall.

I agree with you guys and also add that if Christian gave permission to Andrea to speak so freely and “give it back to him” Ana would have a fit she just gave her assistant permission to be disrespectful to her husband. Then when they were talking about him even in Marilyn tone she was disrespectful and Ana said nothing.

Great chapter sweet friend, I wish friends would mind there on buisness sometimes. Cg is precious with anas high blood pressure and all , yes I agree with him and so should she, and once again again grace is being a little selfish, ok so what happens ifshe continues against cg wishes because she listens to grace and marylyn right, then gets to stressed in a situation, bp skyrockets, delivers to early, they lose her over it, I know it wont but all im saying is cg loves them so much, thats what hes trying to avoid, and other people see it as controlling whatever, they need to keep there mouth shut, amen, amen love you great chapter,

OH Wow, CG has laid down the Law…. I hope he figures out what he did soon, it’s obvious to us but CG is a little slow in understanding a Conversation sometimes. Complacent Ana as CG calls her is just confused Ana trying to figure things out herself. I hope She-Ra realizes who exactly she’s messing wi and I’m guessing CG is going to get a new company for pennies on the dollar, and what a Show the Fairlane’s put on… CG looked like he had some fun!!

Tomorrow is my Birthday and I couldn’t have received a better present!! Thank you BG for an amazing chapter!!

Considering what had went down at Helping Hands I think Marilyn blew Christians orders out of perspective. Was he wrong in the way he handled himself “issuing” orders? Probably, but then let’s remember who we are dealing with. Ana had already stated before she left Helping Hands that she was not quitting just leaving for awhile. With that said I think Ana being upset with Christian is him telling her that she needed to start her maternity leave rather than Ana getting to tell him first that it was her intention to start her leave. Marilyn is not the pregnant one who was attacked and she needs to remember that. I’m with Christian on this, he is just trying to take care of his family.

YES! I agree with you completely. Marilyn is thinking of herself and so is Grace…Christian is thinking of his family and has every right to; and Ana already made her decision before Christian even said anything. Now, she’s trying to make it as if Christian is “ordering” her to stay home…She needs to get a grip and remember she is one month away from delivery; has had her own issues of depression, anxiety, stress, and even wanting all control over her life and putting herself in harms way…she has some pride issues she has to deal with because when she doesn’t get her “own” way, the way she wants it, she put it all on Christian when he has done everything he can to give her space, respect her wishes, and lover her unconditionally. I am totally with Christian here!

@sassybutterfly you took the words out of my head….my mouth literally dropped open when Grace asked what about her and the center…seriously you are a pediatrician you know the risks of a twin pregnancy. No, Marilyn doesn’t work forCG but like she said he is the master of the universe and guess what you are a minion so do what you are told and keep it moving in that car he bought you. In the Real world you can’t check your boss and expect no recourse…yes disagree with but can’t ” check ’em “…excellent chapter love it !!!!

I don’t think I’m going to say anything about this one. It was a good chapter, but I’m afraid I’m gonna say something that’ll upset someone and I’m just not going to do it. Can’t wait to see how they resolve this one. Although I will say, I’m getting how Christian is feeling at this moment.

I’m not sure how I feel right now. I feel something is about to happen, or i missed something, but I don’t know what. I think I need to allow this chapter to marinate, soak in for a while as to what I feel what has happened in the last 24 hours with the Grey.

Thank you for the chapter.
Hope all is well with you and family.
Janis

I don’t think so what CG did is wrong he protecting his family.. Marilyn is not pregnant with twins n she do not know the stress Ana going on.. He did not yell or demand n he told her nicely.. They r allowing to many people in their marriage.. Ana need to think from CG perspective.. I dont understand y CG always been seen at fault here n an asshole when all he is doing is taking care his family.. Did Ana know what will happen if her blood pressure go up.. As a doc Grace is been clueless n selfish.. If If I weree CG I will let Ana do what she want after CG tell her how he feel..

Great chapter so much going on again. Christian is being Christian, says what has to say without the bull. He is a powerful man, and is used to issuing orders, feelings don’t come into it where business is concerned. And Ana is on top of his list of priorities, her well being and that of the babies.
If Marilyn, is upset by his attitude, she should suck it up or say her piece and get it over with. I think Christian would appreciate her honesty and they would be able to communicate better.
Christian still has a lot to learn about talking to people who are not his employees but Anas. They need to establish a common ground in protecting Ana.
Ana does now need to go on maternity leave, but she will get stressed out about Helping Hands if she doesn’t have some involvement in its getting the accreditation, her brain child after all. Perhaps she should step back and work on ensuring they get that accreditation from home. For now. After the babies are born she may have to sit down and talk with Grace and Christian once she sees how the land lies with coping with twins and her own body healing. It takes time to recover from having one baby, so I can’t imagine how tired she going to after delivering twins, her body needs time to adjust to two to three hour feeds night and day. I can’t see her wanting to spend eight hours a day at the centre where the emotional demands are high.
Now let’s see what happens next

Excellent! Very perceptive! Thank you for saying that without all of the blame and “People need to get out of their marriage” and “This is selfish and hateful” and “Why don’t she just understand” and “Why is Christian the bad guy?”

I totally understand that people get invested in the story and become emotional, but I totally appreciate you being able to articulate what I THINK people may have been feeling without all of the arrows. Thank you. ❤

Totally agree with Christian ! I am confused why Ana always thinks the worst of Christian after situation like this when one of her friends doesn’t like how he spoke to them. Ana didn’t remember she had already resigned she needed to take care of herself and the babies first. I think she also is wondering or thinking about how people always think they can push her around and nothing she does changes that. She took Christian at his word that she should be on maternity leave because she is tired of fighting the world, not Christian. He is her safe place. She knew what he would do it before he did it and wanted him to take over. Of course this is only my opinion of the chapter. I think it was excellent as usual!

Very interesting chapter, I feel pulled in all direction here. Marilyn has every right to voice any concerns she may have in regards to how someone is treating her and has made her feel, and I do feel she is justified in voicing her concerns to Ana. She’s been with Ana before Christian, and deserves respect, she cares about Ana and her well being too.

Not too sure about Christian whole “executive decision”, yeah Ana had resigned herself to an early maternity leave, which she should have given she’s almost due and twins can come early, before he pulled that, but he didn’t give Ana a chance before he dictated what she should do. It all comes back to the control freak aspect of Christian’s personality. Sure it’s fine when they take on their BDSM roles, but many can easily look at his control and “laying down the law” over Ana as abuse. Control is a form of abuse. I get that at times we need someone to tell us to slow down for our good, but the way he does it irks me. It might make Ana question whether she’s complying because of him or because it’s her own decision. It all sort of comes full circle with the being Mrs Christian Grey and losing herself and autonomy. I could be waaaaay off here, but that’s how I interpreted this chapter.

I may also be slightly biased when Christian gets on his control freak business. It’s why I absolutely hated, and I mean HATED the original FSOG books, Christian was creepy, and hit a lot of points on the Hare checklist. But I like that BG has humanized him, and has actually given Ana a backbone. They’re 10x more realistic and normal that the original and I love that

Again, thank you for articulating what I think most people are feeling without so many arrows. I have to say I don’t see his control as abuse, but she kind of expected it. I think she may be feeling a bit resentful, though.

WTF!?! Christian is not the bad guy here. There is nothing wrong in what he said to Marilynn. Maybe in HOW he said it, but not what he said. If the tables were turned and Christian was resting after being injured and his assistant walked in the door, I have no doubt Ana would take control and “lay down the law”. Marilynn blew it way out of proportion, voiced her opinion on how Christian treats Ana and their relationship when it’s none of her damn business. Seems her ego has gotten too big with her “I do all this for you and if security can’t keep up that’s their problem” spiel from last chapter, that she’s forgotten what all has been through and that her blood pressure is a serious situation.
There’s a saying that your marriage should be an island. Well, there’s too many damn people on C&A’s island!!!

Then there’s Grace…UGH!! Stop with the damn guilt trips. Who the f* is the Director, Grace or Ana? Last I read Ana is the ASSISTANT director. She’s one month from her due date with twins in a high risk pregnancy. Twins are notorious for coming early. What happens if Ana goes into labor/has the babies before the accreditation? The day before? The day of? Is there really no one else that can handle the inspection? If that’s the case, then they don’t need to be running a day care anyway. I’ve been doubting Grace’s ability to run the center for quite some time as it is, and this just confirmed she can’t. This completely baffles me and pisses me the F off. Ana would’ve been going on maternity leave soon anyway. How do they not have alternative plans? Plus, Ana made headlines for holding a gun on someone at the very center where they’re trying to get said accreditation for the day care. Self-defense or not, is that the person you want representing the center?

And Ana…..*shaking my head

“Yes. You have disgruntled spouses, abusive fathers coming in there that you have to deal with. You’re the first point of contact and you have to deal with this shit head on. You’re putting yourself at imminent physical risk as well as our babies. I try not to be unreasonable because I know that you can take care of yourself, but you are a month from your due date which means that those babies can come any day now and you have to watch your blood pressure. I don’t see how shoving a gun down Monster Bitch’s throat facilitates that, Anastasia.”

Where in there did she not hear a reason for his decision? What can’t she understand? I don’t understand HER behavior. She wanted the damn maternity leave, she knew what he would do, and he did. Then she goes to bed and cries herself to sleep?? In the morning she hears in a rant from her assistant that he wanted to not be disturb and get some rest (among other things) and her response is to say “Go ahead and confront him. How dare he care about my well-being and our babies (what is up with the MY babies shit?), he has no right to talk to MY employee like that” I Know that’s not it, but she may as well have. She’s reamed out Christian’s employees plenty of times. Pot meet kettle. Then Christian has to search for her and when he tries to talk to her, to figure out what’s wrong (wether he caused the mood or not), she sends him away. My heart broke for him. She hates when he does that to her and harps about communication, but she keeps shutting down on him. There’s something seriously wrong with this mindset of hers.

Poor Christian is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. She finds fault with so many of his actions and attributes, sometimes deserved, sometimes insinuated by others, that I wonder why she’s with him. I swear they fight, disagree, ignore, hurt each other more than they get along and stand by each other. Some of the same issues over and over. And that HURTS!! I’m extremely leary of what’s coming next. ='(

hmmm Okay Christian didn’t find out the way I anticipated and that’s just fine. grin Goddess you are just so much more subtle than me. I vow to never be surprised by you. grin HA! Christian and the Fairlane’s oi! What a piece of work. sigh Yeah I liked that a lot. Morons complete morons.

You had me in stitches with the whole ‘My daddy will take care of it’ bs from the bully of a beast. Oh ho to funny.

I find myself on the fence somewhat over both Christian and Ana’s position about his reaction to what happened to her. I completely understand him wanting to keep her safe. There are issue with her physically that do require more concern. And Ana seems to understand that he is going to freak and go all over protective over the attack so I’m confused by her despondency afterwards. Fifty is just being Fifty. He will settle down again once he gets over his reaction to the shock of seeing his reason for living bruised in an attack. I’m not seeing what he did is ‘wrong’. It was his honest reaction. At times I think Ana doesn’t take her condition into consideration. If she was not pregnant I could understand her position better. But she is no longer ‘kick ass’ Ana at the moment. She can’t move or react like she was trained, even her center of gravity is different. Her response is hurting him, and all he’s done is have a knee jerk reaction wanting to protect her and the twins. Maybe you are being too subtle for me again. grin I’m sure you’ll make it clear to me when the time comes. I think Ana needs Chuck back in a big way. And I think security at Helping Hands needs to be revamped.

I don’t like Marilyn in this update
Indirectly Christian is also her boss
I was so angry when she was complaining about Christian to ana
And ana god y can’t she just use her own heart and mind and try to think from his pov

I’m just going to leave this right here point one pregnant with twins typically means high risk not every multiple pregnancy but most point two this woman has been in a severe car accident where she should have died to be absolutely honest and the results of that accident caused some memory loss point three they are this man’s family all rolled into one body he loves them but he is truly obsessed with his wife where some people would say is unhealthy so of course he is gonna worry point four last one Marilyn and Grace were not the ones assaulted and they are not in Ana’s position so maybe Christian’s conversation with Marilyn was a little shouty boss he is only thinking about his family I think certain people in this situation should fall back and look at the whole picture cause if something else happens to Ana or those babies I don’t think anything good could come with Christian Grey on a warpath . Love you Lynn your the best see you next time take care

Many people post powerful comments on things that I address in later chapters, so a lot of the concerns above have already been addressed later–but even though I’ve already written several chapters, they still have to be edited. Hence, the two-week posting schedule.

MARILYN WITH CHRISTIAN:“I realize that he’s got a lot on his plate ruling the world and everything, but I’m never rude or belligerent to him, and I would appreciate if he would extend that same respect to me that I extend to him!”“He was just really rude, Ana.”“… He had no right to speak to me the way that he did when I walked into the house this morning. He barked orders at me like I was the janitor at GEH.”

It doesn’t matter how big the paycheck is, I still don’t have to like the way you talk to me!
It wasn’t what he said to her; it was how he said it. I probably don’t make as much money as Marilyn, but if my boss comes barking at me in real life, I’m going to put her ass in check!

MARILYN WITH ANA:“It’s going to cause a problem if I say it, Ana.”
“Remember that you told me to tell you this. I wanted to keep it to myself.”
“No, you talk to your husband… you mean too much to me and I’m not going to risk this relationship. If he has your best interests at heart, then so be it, because in the end, that’s really all I care about. But that’s going to be a discussion that the two of you have, not the two of us! If you’re going to accept his demands, no questions asked, then it’s none of my business—which is what I implied in the first place—and all I need you to do is tell me what my next instructions are.”

WHO MISSED THIS??? Who missed Marilyn telling Ana on three separate occasions that it’s not a good idea for her to verbalize her feelings? That she should keep them to herself? That Christian and Ana’s relationship was none of her business? Who missed MARILYN telling this to ANA BEFORE AND AFTER this conversation occurred, hmmm? Ana presses Marilyn to share her thoughts, specifically telling Marilyn “It’s going to cause a problem if you don’t,” and now Marilyn’s the Butt-Insky? Really? Interesting…

GRACE AND ANA:
Yeah, Grace is only thinking about the Center and herself. That may make her selfish… I agree… That does not, however, make her incompetent or incapable–maybe a bit too dependent on Ana and her abilities, but she’s perfectly capable of being director (I saw that somewhere; someone said that she couldn’t do it).

ANA AND CHRISTIAN:
Yes, Ana knew that Christian would lay down the law. She already said that she would accept it and to some degree welcomed it, but had a bit of a change of heart for various reasons–the biggest of which is that she questioned the LOGIC behind his reasoning. Somebody quoted Christian and all that he said about her blood pressure and high risk pregnancy and whatnot, but what you didn’t catch (or what you ignored) was Ana trying to explain to him that she didn’t understand his change of heart in terms of it being okay for her to be a gun-toting Annie Oakley when it came to protecting herself against Myrick or against Sunset’s thugs if need be, but not okay against the possible threats at the Center. She couldn’t see the difference yet and as a result, he’s using the obvious to ground her. What I don’t get is that Christian put his thumb directly on the cause of her ire and everybody else missed it (I think there was one person who got it), and even after I post this, I bet everybody is still going to miss it.

I don’t mind people being passionate about what they read and what I write. What I do mind is people reacting so swiftly to parts of the story and totally deleting, throwing out, or completely ignoring very crucial pieces and aspects of the tale!

Well, you posted this before I could write my reply, lol. I caught it all. Marilyn did tell Ana that their relationship/marriage was none of her business and that she should not say anything. Ana should have left it alone and stopped questioning Marilyn. I do agree that Christian had no right to talk to Marilyn the way he did. Marilyn should have checked him on it. That’s something she should not have to clear with Ana. Talk crazy to me, I give it right back to you. Point blank and the period. 🙂

I knew that even though Ana knew Christian’s reaction, she was going to have mixed feelings about it. Curse those dayum pregnancy hormones that have you all over the place, lol. I think her scaling back, right now, is good. Hers and the babies health are more important. If she wants to work, from home, regarding things, GREAT! Once they receive the accreditation, then she can attend that, if there is a ceremony. Christian is going to have a grovel a little bit since his epiphany that he revealed to Dr. Baker. He has some ‘splaining to do. He’s caught between a rock and a hard place and my heart goes out to the man who was once thought to NOT have a heart 🙂

The Fairlanes…..#classic. I was falling over laughing at them. Poor Georgie, Jr., lol. What a clueless idiot. I loved it.

I also caught the horse reference to Glenda, lol. Her size, last name of Shetland, then the Clydesdale reference ;-p……I was bullied in high school. Therefore, I despise bullies. Glenda needs to end up in a cell with an even bigger amazon trick who beats her butt each time she blinks….

I have to find some kind of way for her to get hers because if she goes to jail, she’s going to be the bully. I like the idea of her ending up in a cell with an even bigger Amazon… if that’s even possible!

Wow so Christian reacted a lot civil than I thought. I thought he was going to be smoking hot lava out of his ears. I don’t disagree with what he is saying to Ana though. She’s had a hell of a year and pregnancy why would she not stop now that she’s closed to giving birth unless she’s afraid he will make her stay home after the babies are born. And this I can understand bc I wouldn’t want her to stop working. His job and his childhood issues are always putting them all at risk point in view the Farlanes today! Him going off on Marylin today makes me think if that’s the reason why Val is acting indifferent with Ana. I’m wondering if that whole debacle when Butterfly was having issues with her ex and Christian trying to over rule Val’s decision did not start this feud amongst them. Val might be jealous of Ana and Christian’s relationship but not for monetary reasons. She’s jealous of the bond they share as a couple where she is being replaced by Christian. She might be feeling abandoned by Ana but doesn’t know to express it. Well Bronze Goddess you belted out another great chapter and had us all thinking again. Thanks for sharing your great work.

I’m confused as to what Ana’s problem is. She left the Center with the intention of taking time off. She spent fifteen minutes talking to Grace about why she needs to step away. She was concerned about the babies while holding the gun she said. So why does she have an issue with Christian. It seems like Ana get jealous every time Christian shows too much concerns for the babies. She’s pregnant and got hit by a big bitch. Ana can’t even tell you which way it came from, next time it could be a knife that connects with her. Her treatment of Christian is like an Abusive marriage except she the mental abuser. She fucks with his mind and his emotions. Ana’s is wrong on, who gives anyone permission to disrespect their husband. If Marilyn have a problem with Christian then she either speak to Christian or to Ana. She came to Ana complaining about Christian like she was Ana’s Boss or something. I was like what is this. I was confused with who worked for who. Christian said nothing wrong to Marilyn. Marilyn made it seem like Christian was conspiring against her. How can a mind doctor be so easily mind fucked. It’s has always been so easy for Ana to turn on Christian and every one knows this. So Marilyn turning her against Christian wasn’t that hard. Grace is I honestly can’t find a polite word to describe her. Her selfishness knows no bounds. Do Anyone Not Care About These Babies Other Than Christian. I always said Ana has No maternal instincts. I have NEVER seen her maternal instinct kick in. Sometimes I just want Christian to walk away. Leave her with her friends and her bullshit. When it comes to their Marriage is has always been One Sided. Christian always puts Ana first and above every one else,No matter what. No ones before Ana and No one insults or Threatens her in anyway. Yet everyone of Her friends as threatened Christian in some way or another. This chapter seem like his breaking point. Like he has finally gave up.

I’m surprised Ana is not on bed rest. I know several women and family members who carried multiples and the were all on bed rest near the end of term. They are a lot taller than our petite friend here. I think CG acted like any caring yet nervous father to be. The two just need to talk it out and share their feelings. Ana said that she was going back and the babies would be in day care at the center and CG seemed fine. The said months ago (when Ana went to security central for the first time) that they needed to work on their communication. Just bumps in the road. They haven’t been together that long. There will be more growing pains.

Thanks so much for your hard work, Lynn! I hope all your recent challenges are working out for you.

I don’t care for Grace that much anyway. Never did in canon either. She founded Coping Together to help families affected by drug abuse… like CG’s. She outed his past by forming that charity and once a year, she and Carrick host a gala where men symbolically purchase single young women (like prostitutes). Therefore once a year without fail, his family has thrown his history with the crack whore in his face. She adopted all those kids and exploited them. Now she’s exploiting Ana, too. Doesn’t she WANT healthy grandchildren? What kind of fucking doctor is she? The same that outed all of CG’s issues to his future abuser? The kind that guilty a heavily pregnant woman to deal with Courtney who threatened her physically? Yeah, she may have been somewhat redeemed, but was it worth the risk? Ana was just assaulted, did Grace suggest she stay home and rest? Nooo that would be far too much like right. Perhaps someone should have bitch-slapped her ass and then we’d see how dedicated she is to the cause.

Interesting point about book Grace. I never thought of it like that, but you’re completely right. You could go further and question the safety of it. “Villains” or criminals, if you like, hide in plain sight. Case in point; Elena. She’s right there, entrenched in the family dynamics as Grace’s best friend. How she ( a trained professional) never noticed or questioned what was going with Christian as a teen is beyond me.

You know, even though that was very angrily said, I never looked at Grace that way. When I think about it, that’s EXACTLY what she did in the books! And when I think about it, that’s exactly how she acts in my story. Believe it or not, the characters do things on their own and sometimes, I’m just like “Wow,” but more than once, Grace has shown that she is really very selfish!

Also, I have a VERY hard time believing that she didn’t know that Elena was into the lifestyle when she basically “fed” Christian to her. And look how long they were friends thereafter and she still didn’t have an inkling that something was “rotten in Denmark??? ”

I’m not angry; I’m disgusted. Grace is held up as this perfect paragon while she is abusing her son. CG touched upon it quite a bit. How did Elena know WHEN to punish him? Grace told Elena all of his transgressions.

My kids might get into quite a bit, but I’m not putting their business into the street even when I might feel the need to vent. She’s a doctor for many years. Doesn’t she have any concept of doctor-patient privilege, or is it OK to abuse a patient’s privacy if he/she is a relative?

The other thing: surely CG had to get physicals & shots for school. Who was his doctor if not Grace?

Holy. Epiphany. Batman. …….I started seeing Grace in a different light when she was pissed that Ana & Christian did not want to have a “coming out” party for the twins. WTH…..who the heck wants random people around their babies? Grace is a pediatrician, she knows how susceptible infants are to germs, etc…..When she and Mia had to apologize to Ana for their attitudes, I was pretty much done with her. I was not shocked that she put the want and need of Helping Hands BEFORE her daughter in law and first grandchildren. Her selfishness deserves its own zip code. I too felt she should have known what Elena did to Christian. First, I do not care what kind of trouble Christian was getting into, I’m sure she and Carrick could have come up with suitable punishments (cleaning out the attic, raking back yard, landscaping, having to chauffer Mia and her friends), instead of having him go do work for Elena at her house. As a parent, I dish out my children’s punishments, i.e., clean the house, no video games/cell phones, etc….I also DO NOT tell people, other than my mother, grandmother, and in-laws about things my children do/have done. Grace told Elena Christian’s business, then served him up to her wrapped in a pretty red bow. Grace seemed like she was too busy playing the heroine and looking “good” for the public (a pediatrician, married to a lawyer, adopts 3 children, starts a charity for underprivileged families…..) to realize that her maternal instincts should have kicked in when it came to Christian being sexually abused and Elena being a pedophile.

Wow, this comment really does make me see Grace differently, now, lol.

YES!!! I agree with all of you. We have all have moments where we don’t agree with something a character did, but we manage to overlook it. No offense Goddess, but for your Grace, I overlooked her guilt trip on Ana to accept Flynn’s olive branch after Flynngate, and somewhat less easily her lecture about how C&A treated each other after Ana’s fundraiser lunch debacle, but when Ana had a breakdown because of the guest list issue, my opinion of her plummeted. I mean, how selfish and disrespectful can you get that you demand and defer to your son to approve the amount of people you want at his and his fiancées wedding, completely dismissing said fiancées wishes, resulting in her having a hysterical breakdown that required sedation? And as bad as that was, this chapters guilt trip, if Ana falls for it, puts their lives at risk! I’m still stunned she had the gall to stand there looking at her daughter-in-law, a month from her due date, with a bruise over half her face, and say what she did. Epic fail as a MIL and as a Dr.

I don’t know if he will, but I’d love to see Christian’s reaction if he found out.

Ana has also forgotten quite a bit due to her accident. I think she should stay at home. Just because she seems to have more lives than a cat doesn’t mean her children do. It actually appears as if she’s upset that CG is pissed that she was able to be attacked at a place he took pains to make as safe for her as possible. To tell the truth, I’m shocked it took him this long to put her on lockdown.

Marilyn needs to chill out. Yes, CG was rude to her. He’s an abrupt individual under a great deal of stress. He’s also a generous fellow who has improved her lifestyle tremendously. She shouldn’t be biting the hand that has fed her ass a new wardrobe and transportation.

It wouldn’t have been difficult for her to tell CG not to speak to her in that way. No, she had to harbor that shit and save it for Ana. Sure, she gave Ana three warnings, but it’s ANA! If she didn’t want to give her the whole roll she shouldn’t have left a damn trail of crumbs.

I just love when we have these dialogs. We all are invested in this story taking a personal interest in the lives of the characters as if, in many cases we feel they are our own family members.
You touched a nerve in the writing of your story. I remember as a kid coming home from school and couldn’t talk because my mom’s “story” was on and What every you had to say could not be that important until commercial. My mom and grandmother was vested in day time soaps. That was their story and knew every detail: who, when, where and how it happened. That’s how I feel about this story, I’m vested. I get mad and yell, cuss and cry at them and for them, but right now I feel so many mix emotions to them.
Although I hate it, I will take up for the she-devil and Grace. It seems to me that Grace just might have been naive. Grace might have told She-devil everything, but She-devil only told her what she needed to know. I doubt she talk about the lifestyle. We got to remember Grace had what miss devil wanted. Miss devil is going to make damn sure she is available to listen and help out however, whenever she can…send him over to the house, there is plenty of work around here for him to work out some of that anger i could image her saying. And who would think your long time family friend would ever do anything to hurt you or your family…
My best friend of over 50 years we share pretty much everything, so I can see it happening, trusting your friend. Key here is trust. But I would have kicked her ass, than called the police if she had laid hands on my kids.
I really thought CG was going to go balistic to the ninth degree. After reading it twice I think he is scared. He knows what could happen if Ana blood pressure gets to high what a risk it is for both Ana and babies. I think he’s trying to be mineful of it all.
I just wonder. It seems strange to me that why Marilyn after dropping off Ana off the night before, knowing how she looked. Knowing she is pregnant. I would hope knowing she should be tired and knowing how her husband Christian Grey might react, why would she come over in the morning like nothing had happened to work. Granted Christian should not have spoke to her in any manner but respectful, why was she there…my mind went left when she was there the next morning. Why?

I wanted to hear what CG said to daddy amazon, and what daddy said to monster girl, I am sure was something else.

BG we love you. We love the story. I am vested like my mom and grandmother were, this is my story too.
I read lots of stories in FF, TWCS and in Twight, but never have I read a story were the readers are so invested.
Love this story!

Great chapter again. Thanks for getting us out of the cliffhanger mode. Loved the Glenda name as well as the last horsey na,e plus what Ana called her. That was a great tongue in check reference. Looks like Christian is in the dog house again and though I don’t agree with him dictating she may or may not do, he more than has enough reason. She is so close to her due date, plus twins, high blood pressure and all the stress she has been under during the pregnancy plus the accident. It is a wonder she hasn’t been put on permanent bed by her OB till she delivers. Look forward to your next chapter.

Ana makes me tired Christian is right she needs to keep her butt at home until she have the babies Ana is the one that is fifty shades messed up not Christian she always got an attitude when things don’t go her way maybe Christian needs to remind Marylin who paid for that car and pays for everything else she needs to keep her mouth shut all Christian wants to do is take care of his wife and babies is that so wrong

Then Marilyn comes in telling Ana about her confrontation with Christian. Which I understand she had to say something but she really has Ana thinking or should I say rethinking staying home. I totally understand Christian wanting her out of harms way but how would he feel if he had to stay totally away from GEH?

I can understand Grace not wanting Ana to take off at the moment because an accreditation takes a LOT of work to get but then again Ana could go into labor at anytime and be off as well. Grace might have to step up to the plate. She can always call Ana and get her input.

I didn’t really write it, but what ends up happening is that Amazon tells Daddy what happened expecting Daddy to make it all go away. When Daddy realizes who she pissed off, he calls Christian and lets him know that Amazon Girl is on her own and doesn’t have his support in this, not only because he doesn’t want to cross Christian, but also because she was wrong. As a result, with no support from Daddy and his money and having to face this issue head on, Amazon Girl take a plea for leniency.

I don’t know if everyone reads all the comments like a lot of us do and I think this is need to know stuff, lol. We all want to see the Amazon crushed for hitting our Ana. Maybe you can tack this onto your authors notes somewhere. ❤

Girl, you could teach a class on how to evoke emotional resonance in your writing. Really great chapter. 🙂

Intense chapter but Ana is exhausting to me with all her changing moods. I love her but damn. Marilyn, I’m not sure I like very much right now.. Christian should not have ordered her around like that, especially since he seemed happy later when he thought back on treating her the way he did. But as she says, he is not her boss, so why did she need Ana’s permission to give it right back to him? If my friend’s husband or wife is rude to me to that extent I’m not waiting for my friend’s go ahead to defend myself. It appears to me that her seeking Ana out before saying something to Christian was just to cause more drama with the issue. I think Marilyn was quite capable of handling this issue with Christian without needing to say anything at all to Ana. Why did she NEED to bring this issue to Ana’s door when she knows Ana’s plate is already overflowing? So, because I think Marilyn could have handled it herself, I feel like she was just using his rudeness to get to the issue she really wanted to discuss which was Christian laying down the law on Ana staying home. Even though she was all “I really shouldn’t say it, you go talk to your husband”, she knows Ana can be like a dog with a bone and used that to her advantage and let Ana “force” her to speak her mind. Marilyn made it pretty clear she had something crappy to say about Christian. What wife, or husband for that matter, is going to let those breadcrumbs be dropped without insisting on the whole damn slice of toast? Of course Ana would have pressed her to say what’s on her mind. The entire issue with Christian telling Ana no more center should not have even been mentioned by Marilyn other than for confirmation because it is none of her business. How long she stays away from the center is none of her business and how C&A handle issues in their marriage is none of her business. Sometimes I feel Ana is easily manipulated by her friends and lets their opinions of her husband influence her own opinion of her husband.

As far as Christian making the decision about maternity leave, I have mixed feelings about this. As a woman, my first instinct is to be all, “the hell you say?! You ain’t ordering me to do a damn thing, hubby!” But then after reading that part of the chapter again, it made me more supportive of Christian making the decision. Hear me out. She said at the center that she was done for now and wouldn’t be back. She said she was glad to be going at this time, it was time anyway with everything that has happened and that she wants to be grounded and will have no problem if it’s what Christian wants too. The he finds out what happened and we get to this passage:

“Christian walks back to the front of his desk and sits down in front of me. He touches all five fingertips to the other hands and ponders for a minute or two… too long. I don’t speak while he thinks. I need to let him come to whatever conclusion he’s going to come to without my input. An eternity later, he looks up at me.”

She sat there silently by choice for a minute or two (an eternity when you are waiting for something), waiting for him to think and come to whatever conclusion he comes to WITHOUT her input. Why? She purposely didn’t give him any input, opinion, nothing, so someone had to say something. Someone had to make a decision. She had more than enough time while he was thinking to tell him she decided she wants to go on leave early and she said nothing. Again, why? Maybe he should have asked her what she thought should happen now, but she knows he is a decisive person and knew that if she didn’t say anything, he was going to say it for her. Whether she did it on purpose or subconsciously, she set him up. It releases her from the responsibility of making – and announcing – the decision herself and that it was totally what she wanted to do anyway. It kind of reminds me of something my husband does that has driven me crazy for the last 20 years and I’m sure will drive me crazy for the next 20. He always wants me to make the big important decisions by myself with pretty much zero input from him. Then if it turns out wrong, he gets to say “I knew we shouldn’t have done that.” That seems to me sort of what she’s doing here. Maybe strong badass Ana subconsciously doesn’t want to appear weak for voluntarily walking away (especially with Grace and Marilyn putting the pressure on), although she is anything but weak and proved her badassness at the center, so she allows Christian to be the bad guy and “make” her stay home and she comes out looking like the put upon wife and still gets exactly what she wanted anyway, which was to stay home. And that goes right back to what her friends think of Christian and how they sometimes tend to treat him. She lets her friends’ opinions of her husband influence her own opinion of him while at the same time, her not sticking up for him to her friends makes them braver to say not nice things about him because she doesn’t defend him, so they believe that what they think about him is the whole truth. It’s an endless cycle. She was fine with his decision when he made it but now that her friend doesn’t like the decision that she allowed her husband to make, she rethinks everything and Christian is once again the big, bad controlling wolf.

Now why did Christian ground her now and not before? And not after she gives birth either? I may be wrong but it’s seems simple to me. He can’t control Ana pre or post pregnancy at all and he knows it. A not pregnant Ana can and will do exactly what she wants, even if she compromises her own safety at times, and he can’t do a damn thing about it. But while she is pregnant with THEIR children, he should and does have some say in how she conducts her life. He has tried to play it her way up until now, up until she was actually punched in the head, putting his nearly full term babies in imminent danger. Mind you, I’m not saying SHE put them in danger, but they were in danger. To me, it was a “this is the last straw” kind of decision. The same way it was a last straw decision for her too. And I believe that soon, Christian would want to rethink the idea of his children staying at a daycare there unless it is highly guarded with bullet proof glass and the works. Especially if shithead spouses continue to show up and blindside them with violent outbursts. He can’t control his wife’s environment but he can at least partly control his childrens’ environment.

I didn’t mean to write this much, this chapter just really sucked me in and made me think. 🙂

I understand that people get passionate about what they read in my stories and even if I may/may not agree with a comment, as long as it’s not vicious, I approve it anyway. It’s just that sometimes I have to read comments, say what I’m going to say, and then “fade to black.”

What I need for people to see is that Ana is “Every Woman.” (Yes, the Chaka Khan/Whitney Houston reference was intentional). You can hate her, you can love her, you can be proud of her, you can besmirch her, you can call her a bitch, you can call her your hero, you can sympathize with her, empathize with her, admire her or pity her, but somewhere over the course of the last three years, you’ve seen yourself in her. And every last one of us has gone through a metamorphosis somewhere in our lives that mirrors something that happened to this woman.

She’s been the hero; she’s been the bitch; she’s been the victim; she’s been the saint; she been the martyr; but every time her roles change somewhere in the story, people tend to flip out and it’s usually a mass flip.

I know when I’m about to stir up trouble… I had somebody get mad at me before I even WROTE the babymoon, and it turned out to be a great experience except for one asshole who tried and failed to caused mayhem.

I guess in all of that I’m just trying to say that I want these people to be real and real people make you run the gauntlet of your emotions and quite often, they piss you off. If you’re happy with one, most likely, you’re pissed with somebody else. If that’s not the story of anybody’s real life, then they live in a box.

I read your analysis above and I thank you for clarifying. Ana is making the distinction that Myrick, Sunset, and abusive spouses are all the same and Christian didn’t connect the dots. Thank you for clarifying because I was a tad confused. In Christian’s defense I think she could’ve been a little more clear. She’s obviously wallowing which Ana has a tendency to do and when you’re pregnant you always go from one extreme emotion to the other. Understandable.

I’m happy Marilyn stood up for herself in a sense. I’m also happy that she asked permission before going all pistol on Christian. It shows respect that she let him bark at her and then ask for permission to defend herself against with her “real” boss. Yes Christian may also be her boss but it’s more indirect. The only difference between her and Andrea is Marilyn is at the house and is more of a presence in everyday life than Andrea is.

Ana needs to stop the wallow though. She expected his decision and in a sense welcomed it and I think once her head gets cleared and her bruise is healed they can resolve that issue easily. They communicate really well when they both have a mind to do it 🙂

Holy Fairlane. Those family holidays are going to be awkward for the foreseeable future. Sucks to be them!!!

At this point the highest priority should be for the health and safety of Ana and their babies. Grace especially should be standing behind Ana and Christian championing this as both a grandmother and paediatrician, not having her main concern the centre. Having been involved in health care accreditation, Ana being off on early maternity leave does not remove her permanently from the centres roster and should not even be a priority for Grace at this time.
Another great chapter, thank you.

Wow Bronze, these last two chapters have been all sorts of emotional and confrontational, you always seem to make me teary eyed on every chapter and that’s not an easy thing to do.

I agree with a lot of what has been previously said and with the comments that you’ve also posted.

I think for me I can kinda see where Ana’s confusion is and also why she’s feeling like she has nothing left. She felt she could do more at helping hands so gave up her practice at different now that the license at did accreditation is coming in she’s probably feeling like it was worth it to have Helping Hands to be proud of and now effectively Christian has pretty much told her no I’m not letting you go.

She has nothing to do now to occupy her time, she’s always worked or been doing something and now she’s just gonna have to sit around twiddling her thumbs and she’s feeling lost….at least that’s how I see it and it’s only my opinion.

Wind us up and let us at it Goddess. lol I think this chapter has some of the absolute best commentary I have ever read. I’ve reread the chapter twice just to see what others were talking about. This is proof of your brilliant writing. We are totally invested as one of us said and the credit is yours.

Here’s a couple of opinions I’ve formed since my first read through.

Some things slip my mind but then after a reread they reappear. Ana isn’t that far down the road from that near fatal car accident that put her in a coma and now she’s smacked in the head with ‘a bag of sand’, I think were her words. She had brain swelling and didn’t they drill a hole in her skull? I’m thinking even more now Christian is NOT over reacting at all. I’m mean Chuck is ‘still’ recovering. Ana is in a delicate state whether she wants to admit it or not. Delicate is not the same as weak. I have to say Ana quit being a blockhead already. You are doing something even the strongest man can’t do. Your body is nurturing two other lives. Lets see Christian do that. You aren’t quitting your job. You are moving on to imo a more important job, delivering Bebe one and Bebe two. And have you never hear of teleconferencing? You can have your hand in running the center, you can even counsel patients, maybe over Skype. Get the tech teams on this I’m no expert but I do know it can be done. And paperwork and phone calls can be done from that beautiful office of yours. grin But I am giving Ana carte blanche here because having been pregnant three times myself I know just how crazy out of it a person can get. I don’t think she’s right, just pregnant.

I kind of take exception to some who say being a mother isn’t working and how Ana will be bored and miss work. I respectfully disagree big big big time. I believe being a parent is ‘the’ most important job on the planet. This can’t be measured by dollar signs but in the happy and balances individuals your children become, a much more difficult chemistry all together.

On to Marilyn, evil grin I don’t think Marilyn had any negative intent but I do think she had a personal agenda. Her questions to Ana who she could see was wiped out lying there on her desk ‘herded’ her right to the answers she wanted. What Ana ask or tells Christian’s assistant to do is none of her business and again imo shows her disrespect for Christian. I feel this from most of the Scoopy Gang. I can’t tell if Marilyn even likes Christian.

Now Grace, lol this Grace, the fifty Grace, back when she was Esme/Grace, giggle yeah hmm, first she was never fleshed out enough. She is a great doctor, she saved Christian, yet she never got him to a point where he ever trusted her enough to touch him? What? What? What kind of mother is that? Did they do family counselling? Anything? He went to doctor after doctor but did they ever go together? He’s having issues and is a problem and ‘oh hey’ I’ll just send him off with Elena. No comprenda. lol My Mommy radar would have been screaming at me. grin But none of this actually has anything to do with this story because like the Goddess said she was a character that was brought along with the lot of them. She’s not the Goddess’s main focus. The Goddess’s Grace seems nice enough if a bit shallow. She’s flawed. I can’t use her as the moral center symbol because to me she seems a bit to self-centered. I see Gail as the moral center symbol. Grace as a doctor might save a child’s life but I’ve never read where she saves a child’s soul.

Goddess you make us all think. How cool is that? lol

I want to thank you all for being yourselves and sharing yourself with me. I’m loving it.

Holy hell, are they always at war?? If not with themselves and there epic fight battles than with other people, are they not going to get a break and just be happy and waiting for the twins to come and enrich their lives! That is what they really need, is to just construct on their sons. I always tell everybody that you write a true pregnancy! All the ups and downs, the wanting to throw up and than go back to eating. ( my sister did that at a family meal and I was sick just watching her shovel food down her month after just vomiting up what she had eaten just moments before) but now I want to say it is my decision to have the babies! I feel she is close enough to having them and she needs to have them soon before they kill each other with her mood swings which match his everyday life controlling mood swings! I feel for the kids what stronge will parents they will have, they will have a loving and a super over protecting father who will probably want police bracelets put around their ankles when they start to walk!

Please do not wait too long before Ana get’s pregnant again because I want to see you write the over controlling husband, have to deal with a DAUGHTER! That will be his down fall! He will be wild and crazy about his sons and he will play with them and they will make his and Ana’s life more rich fulfilled but Christian having to deal with a daughter and the boys that will take an interest in his preteen daughter will be enough to give him a heart attack! And the everyday growing up pains! Her first period, her first mood swings and let’s do not forget the “you don’t understand me” with the eye roll! It will be classic! How the sweet little princess who saids she loves him, and she is going to marry her daddy will one day become a preteen and will think her parents are idiots and do not understand a thing! That’s a full life experience, as you can probably guess I am watching this happen with my great nieces and my nephews look a me like help! And all I saw, is wait she will grow out of it, have a stiff shot of whiskey and learn about the latest crisis in your pre teen’s life! At least Ana will be able to talk to her children if they have problems but I have a feeling since she will be mom they will not want to talk to MOM! Just wait Christian and Ana one day your sweet boys and I hopefully a sweet princess will com and puberty will stick up it’s ugly head!

I hope the couple can find some rest before the children are born, they are going to need it! Just keep the weiredo’s and the problem people away from this for a least two weeks if not more, Ana will not like it but she does need the time off! These babies are going to give the couple many surprise’s like no sleep, explosive diaper’s (waiting for Christian to get that), waiting to play at 2a.am. Because they have their nights and days mixed up! Yes many, many surprises! To people who say babies are not work, I say you have not had the experience of raising a baby! Great chapter, come on babies!

Oh good! It must have been the story Grey Hearts and Flowers I got mixed up with your story. In that story Ana is having two twin boys leaving Miss. Phoebe as the princess in the family. Believe me If Mis. Phoebe tell her father to do jumping jacks and roll overs, he would say yes Princess and do them until he passes out!

So I am happy that in this story there will be one of each! The boy will be Christian’s little buddy and they will do everything together, she will be his princess and her room will be decked out in pink so much, no he man will go in it but daddy’s doM and any little wish she has, he will grant it!

Ana will have to tame Christian and even herself, not for the children to be spoiled brats! When you are as rich and I fo mean filthy rich it will be hard not to give them anything their little hearts want! Ivan see it now, if they are studying (Play studying) about Paris and all the good gooey chocolate things they make and how much fun seeing all the sights are, and Miss girl or boy Grey wants to go, well fire up the jet and there they go for a month’s vacation to Paris! I place for children by day and a place for lovers by night! The best of both worlds!

Loving your story, all three parts of it! Love your kick ass Ana, she has had some really hard knocks in her life, just as bad as Christian’s early past and the years with the pedophile, so both are badass and fight to keep what they have, they have gone to fair to ever loose it, Christian or Ana would fight like hell to keep it. Keep up the great work in keeping your characters fresh and so interesting!a so many fanfiction stories I have read in the past, start out real strong but tend to fade out at the end and are not as strong as they once were!

Wow, I was surprised when CG didn’t offer Ana any comfort after that she got home. Those Fairlane’s got what they deserved, I’ve been waiting on that confrontation; Georgie sure got screwed by dad. As to him wanting Ana to step away from Helping Hands, I do understand; she should have made the same decision; anything could have happened to her or the babies. As always, thanks for the entertainment 🙂

hey i just saw on facebook that the series is still on i thought you left it after fanfiction so believe it or not i actually read mending dr steele and dr grey in two days. i really really love this story! anyways i didn’t review all the chapters sorry, but i’m reviewing this one totally totally loved it. Ana i think needs to understand that she should take rest, what if she had fallen down after the punch she could’ve really hurt herself or worse the babies. i don’t know much about pregnancy but i guess falling down is the worst thing ever. plus if the woman had punched her stomach then what? i think christian is totally justified to be angry and also yeah he may “lay down the law” but yeah it’s his children too so i guess use VETO. mon dieu about her friends man, i only like allen and james from the gang but others just egg ana i think. val is being a bitch but she only knows why. anyways i really loved mending and dr grey so far and obviously paging! looking forward to your next update! best of luck.

Hey BG,
I started reading Paging Dr. Steele about 2-2 1/2 years ago. Things in my life got busy and I stopped reading for a good while. About two weeks ago I got back reading and started at the beginning. I’m so glad I did because I had forgotten about lot of things. I just got caught up with the story, and now I can’t wait for the next chapters.

I really want to thank you for posting this story. It’s brought happiness to my life. It’s one of the best fanfiction stories that I’ve read, and I’ve read a LOT of stories.

I hope that everything in your RL goes well and that you and your family are blessed with good health and lots of happiness. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

Hey BG,
I started reading Paging Dr. Steele about 2-2 1/2 years ago. Things in my life got busy and I stopped reading for a good while. About two weeks ago I got back reading and started at the beginning. I’m so glad I did because I had forgotten about lot of things. I just got caught up with the story, and now I can’t wait for the next chapters.

I really want to thank you for posting this story. It’s brought happiness to my life. It’s one of the best fanfiction stories that I’ve read, and I’ve read a LOT of stories.

I hope that everything in your RL goes well and that you and your family are blessed with good health and lots of happiness. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

Hey Goddess, I miss you. My weekend just wasn’t the same without you. How are you doing? Life treating you better? I hope so. You take care of my Goddess for me Goddess. grin Come back to us refreshed and brilliant as usual.

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